Transnational Innovation Conference "Building Unicorn-Ready Communities", which took place in Vilnius on June 12-14, along with "Innovation Drift", had presented the phenomenon of exclusivity and high potential in businesses to the participants of the innovation ecosystems in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.
Paulius Motiejūnas, head of BC Žalgiris, opened the conference with the success story of the small team in the perspective of sports. Last year, the prestigious Euroleague award-winning leader was recognized as the Head of the Year. With a limited budget, the basketball team BC Žalgiris developed the ability to mobilize not only Kaunas, but also Lithuania. Paulius emphasized the key values guided by the players who find their way towards victory. Focused on leadership, professionalism and sustainable teamwork, BC Žalgiris has created an inspiring story. The speaker emphasized the fact that not copying other businesses, but identification of own your strengths, may become a key to success for young, small teams.
Teams seeking uniqueness and increased productivity often use stimulants that affect and boost human brain capacities. A neuroscientist exploring the phenomenon of productivity at this level, Dr Urtė Neniškytė introduced the participants of the conference with the currently popular practices. Although synthetic preparations can increase brain effectiveness, they may raise questions on how to unify learning opportunities in the academic community. According to the neuroscientist, brain performance can be enhanced by other means. Sudoku and crosswords, physical activity and decreased multitasking are some examples that work making us better versions and even healthier.
Daniel Jach, innovation and digital development expert has introduced Berlin's promising startup communities. The presenter emphasized competition between London and Berlin and the booming Brexit process. Startup teams find German capital attractive not only because of a productive multicultural environment but also as a spot for events, co-working spaces and collaborative initiatives. Trendy technology sectors make Berlin a competitive startup center on the map of Europe, and the Baltic States can learn from this experience.
Justinas Lasevičius, the co-founder of one of the most potential fintech unicorn TransferGo, has introduced the components of young business success. According to the entrepreneur, the success story requires a proper starting and meeting point - in many cases, a university takes the role that attracts people with common goals; in addition, it is necessary for newly-established companies to maintain themselves by developing a survival kit; a credible path to the necessary funds helps to secure financial sustainability, and it is also important to build a responsible and productive team. The co-founder of the company is convinced that it is important to love your customers not only when creating a product or service but in further stages of business growth.
The conference also focused on analysing buisiness accelerator programs: when do they work and how to create the greatest benefits for startup teams? The best acceleration experience was presented by Dmitrij Sosunov, representative of the Startup Wise Guys team in Vilnius, Boguslawa Cimoszko Skowronski, head of venture capital fund MIT Enterprise Europe from Poland, Aleksander Tõnnisson, creator of Estonian hardware accelerator BuildIT, and Justinas Taruška, Kaunas STP alumni, current CEO at Nando Europe. Justinas has spent 6 months with his team at the Alchemist Accelerator in the United States.
It was the 24th Baltic Dynamics conference. The idea of the conference came from a partnership of organizations developing a start-up ecosystem in the Baltic Sea region. Baltic Dynamics initiative comes from Baltic Association of Science, Technology Parks and Innovation Centers BASTIC since 1996. In recent years, Sweden and Germany have joined the initiative. Next year, the conference will take place on 7-9 October in Riga, Latvia.